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Back in Berlin

I did the maths: I travelled around 20,000 km in Australia – on land exclusively (because I felt like catching a plane would be cheating somehow). I saw the beaches of the East Coast, the monsoon forests in the north, the Red Centre, the beautiful West Coast and its reefs, gorges, rock pools, and water falls. I saw the MacLaren Vale wine area, the Great Ocean Road and many cities and towns along the way to mention just a few of the many places I went to. And I met so many fine people from Europe, North America, South America, Asia and, obviously, Australia.

I took around 10,000 pictures and wrote over 70 blog entries. So many memories, so many new experiences, so many awesome people along the way. It feels like all of this has changed me a little, maybe it has taken my personality to the „next level“, performed a fine tuning basically. Maybe.

Maybe I will just go back to who I was before I left. I will only be able to tell in a few months. For the time being, I am happy to be back in Berlin, to be with my family and to catch up with my friends.

Travelling in Australia definately redefined my way of assessing distances. Before I came to Oz, a 30 hour journey on a plane seemed like a nightmare to me. On my way back, it was actually alright. Granted, I didn’t have a lot of space and sleeping while I am more or less sitting upright in a chair is still difficult for me. But it wasn’t too bad really.

I was very happy to see my family at the airport. Even my brother made it whom I thought to be working in Cologne! It felt great to be back to my home city – 30 years of living in Berlin don’t just wash off that easily. Of course, there were more surprises waiting for me. When I thought I was going to see a few friends at the local park to hang out in the sun for a few hours, it turned out that my mum and brother had secretly turned that meeting into a surprise party for me. There were so many friends there whom I didn’t expect to see for weeks or even months. So we ended up hanging out, playing frisbee, drinking beer, BBQing and chatting in the park until 10 pm when the rangers made us leave by pointing their head light at us for what seemed an eternity to us. I’d also like to mention my “Welcome home” gift for which everyone had chipped in: a brand new snowboard and bindings. Did not see that coming at all. And It’s so beautiful with skulls, whales, a kraken and stuff. Amazing.